Disclaimer: No owning here. Sadness...
Author's Note: Wow, lotsa reivews! Have I mentioned how amazing you guys are? HMMMMM? Anywhoosle (yeah, I said it. Not a typo!) thank-yous to woodspritethatconqueredpeople, J-Bird (aw, thanks! And don't worry, I cried writing the final chapter. You are among friends!), Keepmoveingforward2, Allie, Darkness Bandit, Sammy1792, Redhawk15, sunnydayz56, Bookcrazy101, LadyMysteri, artieelover, TheSupremeRulerofAwesomeness, and GuardianWolf216! You guys are so amazing I can't even stand it!
Warning so I don't get lynched: This chapter is a little short *braces herself for verbal abuse* because if I added anything else it would ruin it. I HAS JUSTIFICATION!
Read on!
"You've got to be kidding me!" Artemis protested weakly, her hands secured behind her back, still kneeling on the hard cement of the support beam. If she fell off, there was no doubt that she would be dead for real this time.
"Are you out of your mind?" Red demanded, seeing Artemis's struggle to stand and picking her up like she weighed nothing.
"Let me down. I can take care of myself." Artemis insisted. Reluctantly, Red obliged, but even so, Artemis had to lean on him. Eh, it was better than being carried, at least.
"Batman! You've got to be joking!" Robin added in. "We just got her back and now you want her arrested?"
"She was Mangus Red's champion for around three days." Batman said, sounding cold, detached. "Meaning she must've killed at least twenty contenders. We can't protect her from that."
Artemis almost couldn't stop her harsh laughter. "Oh please, Batty. Twenty guys? That's nothing."
"Artemis!" Oliver shouted, warning her. He knew about some of the things she'd done, no details, naturally, but if she told Batman even one-tenth of the atrocities she'd committed under her father's control, she'd be put away for life. No chance of parole.
Batman's eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Glare all you want. I'm not going to prison again." Artemis snapped, then froze, wanting to kick herself. Apparently having amnesia had made her loose-lipped and stupid.
"You've been to prison before?" Robin asked, mouth agape. God dammit. Now she really was screwed.
"No, Bird Brain, I get my charming personality from hanging out with you high-class people. I'm guessing you've never been to the Ukraine. Here's a tip for ya: don't mention my name, I'm not exactly popular there. Those Ukrainians hate knowing that their bad-ass jails can be broken out of." She was lashing out, giving too much away, she knew that, but Artemis was desperately trying to think her way out of the situation. There was no was she was going to get out of there without some kind of advantage.
Got it. Artemis stood and took a small step forward, leaving Red and Robin behind her, like she was going to submit. "Fine. You know what? I'm tired, so take me in." She pulled her bound arms over her head – yeah, being double-jointed had its advantages – and extended her hands, taking a split-second to make eye contact with GA. From just that one look he knew that she was going to do something...and he wasn't going to like it. Flipping her palms up, Artemis revealed the little black box she'd snatched from Robin's utility belt when he wasn't looking – hey! She was had been completely unarmed. That was scary and unnatural for her! And besides, originally, she hadn't been thinking that she was going to use it. It was just a means to an end now.
"Artemis..." GA said slowly, backing away, hands up. She ignored him, pressing the red button on the box and twisting her wrists with a snap, freeing herself. No time to gloat, Artemis had just spread her arms wide, protecting the boys, when an electrical pulse raced through the air, cracking with energy and bringing the two senior heroes to their knees. Breathing heavily, Artemis felt her body convulse as she absorbed the shock, shielding Red and Robin from its destructive force.
"What did you do?" Robin demanded, shocked. Ooh, bad pun.
"They're incapacitated, not dead. Calm down." Artemis hissed, feeling jittery and hyper from the sudden and massive electrical intake. "I need to get out of here."
"No freaking kidding! Artemis, Batman is going to kill you!"
"Not if I can help it," she murmured, then turned to them, trying to make them understand. "I was dead. I was –" she repeated, seeing Red and Robin wince "– and now I'm not. And someone kept it from you guys." The pieces were slowly falling into place. Or, not so much the pieces than the questions that she needed to be answered. How did she survive? Why did everyone think she was dead? Who saved her? And why the hell was her hair black?
"And I need to get answers." Artemis said with conviction. Robin and Red looked at her like she was high. Or delirious. Or both.
"You're right." Robin said, surprising her. Artemis had expected him to try and convince her to turn herself in. Which would never happen while hell was hot, but the boy could still try. "Come on, let's get you out of here." Artemis turned to Red, who nodded, then extended his arms like he was going to help her along.
"I'm good." Artemis said, her heart beating wildly, feeling better than she could remember – which was only back a few days. Red raised an eyebrow.
"You don't have to prove anything..." he started. Artemis laughed, then snapped her fingers, the friction sparking in her hands. She forgot how good it felt to be all juiced up!
"I don't need to." Artemis insisted, realizing the her boyfriend knew nothing of her strange immunity to electricity. "Why do you think that you and Boy Wonder over there didn't get fried?" Red's eyes widened as he absorbed what she was saying.
"Artemis..." he began, but Red was cut off by the wail of sirens and – in unison – the three took of and raced through the shadows of the city.
Green Arrow awoke with a pounding headache, the bright flash of police cruiser headlights nearly blinding him as they spun, illuminating the previously-abandoned overpass.
"Can I assume that she made a disappearing act?" he asked Batman, who stood watching the police scramble around like ants without a hive, searching for the kind of electrical disturbance that would warrant a 911 call. There was nothing. Green Arrow wasn't surprised. Jim Gordon being the single exception, he knew that the Gotham police weren't the most competent bunch. The whole world knew. Hence the need for Batman.
"She's gone." Batman paused, his voice uncharacteristically emotional – meaning his voice didn't sound like a stone wall talking – "Robin with her."
Options raced through GA's head. How had she gotten away? How had she sent that pulse through the air without she or the boys feeling its effects them?
How was she alive? The single most important question reverberated in his chest, a beat that matched the rhythm of his heart. How is she alive? How is she alive? How is she alive?
"We're going." Batman said, moving to disappear into the night, off looking for Green Arrow's delinquent protege.
"No." GA said sharply, vising onto the Dark Knight's shoulder. "We're not doing a damn thing until you explain."
"Explain what?"
Green Arrow's look could've bored a hole through solid steel. Superman would've been proud. "How. Is. She. Alive?" his words were measured and steady, but venom was pooled underneath the surface, doing a little more than hinting that GA was not playing around.
"This isn't the time." Batman said coolly, gesturing at the officers below, obviously not wanting them to overhear.
"The hell it isn't!" Green Arrow exploded, the police below be damned. "She was the closest thing I had to a daughter and I've spent that last month trying to get over the fact that she bled out before I could save her. And now, she just shows up, out of the blue, perfectly healthy, but with no memory of how she's alive or who saved her? I've dealt with some pretty profound League crap but raising my protege from the dead is where I draw the line!"
"Green Arrow." Batman interrupted calmly.
"What if it was Robin?" GA demanded suddenly, taking Batman by surprise. "What if it had happened to him?"
That, if nothing else, gave the Batman reason to pause.
"We will discuss this in the Hall."
"We did it to protect her." Bruce started when they reached the Hall, ignoring the vicious looks that Oliver was shooting him. "I swear to you, it was only to protect her..."
Superboy and Kaldur scrambled to get their teammate onto a stretcher, all the while calling to her, trying to keep her eyes open. Green Arrow was no where in sight. Then Batman took over, ordering that they fall back, that he would get her to the nearest hospital – the Batmobile would be faster than the spaceship, he insisted.
"I need to come with you." Robin insisted, his face ashy-white and drawn. "She got shot because of me."
"No." Batman insisted, lifting the limp blonde into his arms with ease. "Not enough time. I'll be in touch." Batman started to move away, then turned back to Kaldur. "Stay here. Help the Leaguers." The unspoken "keep Robin in check" was understood.
Without another word, the Caped Crusader rushed out of the warehouse, deftly weaving his way through the remaining fights. He knew that Artemis was dying, and, strangely enough, for the man who'd treated her with nothing but suspicion and distrust, Batman couldn't – wouldn't – accept it. She was tough as nails, hell, she'd had the courage to look him in the eye and mouth off, something not even Robin could claim. Artemis would pull through this.
She had to.
The nurses at Gotham General looked positively shocked when Gotham's most famous (but not only) vigilante came bursting through the doors, carrying a deathly pale girl in a hunter-green superhero costume.
"She needs surgery. Bullet wound to the chest. Top priority." Batman ordered. The nurses didn't move, seemingly unable to. "Now!" he roared. Jumping slightly, the nurse called for a gurney and wheeled Artemis away. One of them looked over her shoulder, but the Batman was gone.
Artemis flatlined three times during the surgery, but the doctors managed to get the bullet out – it had missed her heart by three-quarters of a centimeter. Which, unfortunately, was enough to do some pretty serious damage. The long and the short of it? Blood. Lots and lots of blood. Artemis had sustained massive internal bleeding from the shot and it was a miracle that she'd even been able to be stitched up at all. But she came out of surgery whole and breathing, which was more than anyone had had the right to hope for, given the extent of her injuries. She seemed to be on the path of a full recovery.
Until someone planted a bomb in her hospital room. Electrically-based, the explosive had meant to shut down the machines keeping Artemis alive – giving her daily doses of the medicine that kept her heart beat regulated, breathing for her, ect – and it had worked. The machines went dead, leaving Artemis at the mercy of her own body. Whoever had planted the bomb hadn't meant for her to survive – nor would they have known that the burst of electricity was what saved their target's life. Absorbing the shock and channeling the energy, Artemis heart started pumping of its own accord, stronger and surer than ever.
That's when Batman had made the decision to keep her life a secret. Whoever was trying to kill her, they thought they'd done their job. As long as the criminal underworld thought that Artemis was dead, she was safe.
"Who?" Oliver demanded when Bruce had finished, taking an aggressive step forward. "Who tried to kill her?"
"I don't know. My best guess would be the Shadows. They don't forget and never forgive – and Artemis has gotten in the way of whatever they want too many times to let her live."
"Which means that now that she's loose..." Oliver trailed off.
"If they find her, they'll try to kill her again." Bruce agreed. "And with her memory coming back in flashes, we can't count on her to stay safe on her own."
"Hence prison." Oliver felt like an idiot. He'd always thought that Batman had hated Artemis, believing that once a convict, always a convict, but he now realized that by arresting her, Bruce was trying to keep her safe, keep her from exposing herself to the Shadows.
Damn.
"We need to find her." Oliver said.
"Already on it."
Ooh Batman, you sneaky devil, you! Ha! I can't believe I even thought of that! Totally left field...don't you love it when stories write themselves? It's AMAZING! Oh and okay, I'd love SUPERDUPER long reivews for this chapter! It would make me happy!
Hope you enjoyed!
~Fae
P.S Any guesses as to where out runaway heroes will be stashing Artie?
